The frustration of another brave but bruising Champions League defeat was written all over Callum McGregor ’s face as he left the Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday night.
For 82 minutes, Celtic gave as good as they got against a Lazio side that have ambitions of going deep into the competition. Just as they had against the Italians in Glasgow. Just like they did against La Liga giants Atletico Madrid at home too. In fact one mad night in Madrid has been the only time Brendan Rodgers side have been turned over in Group E. But for all their efforts just one point has been secured from five games and the journey is over before it even reached its final stop.
McGregor knows this is the harsh reality of his side being the outsiders in the millionaire’s playground that is the top level of European football. A club built on signing young talent and developing players to be able to compete at Champions League group stage level taking on behemoths splashing the cash to try and win the thing.
That’s the nuts and bolts of the matter and why even McGregor admits the winless run in the competition which has now reached 15 games maybe shouldn’t be a big surprise. But it won’t stop the skipper and his team mates striving to be better even if the task seems to get that bit tougher every year
“We have been like that, probably, for the last 15 to 20 years. So that maybe tells you this isn’t a big surprise. But the wish for the players is that when we get to these games we want to do well. We’re just stuck in that wee rut at the minute where we can’t get one win. And the whole thing continues. But, listen, we’ll keep trying and we’ll keep coming back. We’re giving a good account of ourselves in the majority of the games so we’re not too far away. Maybe with just a little bit more quality at this level we can do something.”
Keeping 11 men on the park would help too. Damaging defeats to Feyenoord and Madrid were exacerbated by sendings off early in both games. Lessons learned all round. But even with a full compliment Celtic fell just short in Rome where Lazio had the luxury of throwing on their talisman Ciro Immobile with half an hour remaining and the goal machine responded with two strikes in the final eight minutes.
McGregor said: “When you analyse it, and look at all the games, we’ve competed. The discipline thing is something we can maybe look at, especially in the UEFA competition.
“The threshold for bookings and sending offs is obviously a lot lower. So we maybe need to look at that to try and give ourselves the best chance of keeping 11 men on the pitch. But when we have had 11 v 11 we’ve matched everyone.
“Wee small moments have also gone against us at times. They got the break with their first goal, after he chunks it into the grass and it falls to the striker. We’ve probably not had one of those. Kyogo had a chance across goal, and if it’s similar, we get a tap-in. So it’s small margins.
“We could hear their fans getting frustrated and we had talked about that before the game. We felt the longer the game stayed at 0-0, we’d give ourselves a really good chance. And we could all feel that in the stadium. Really, if anyone was going to score, it was probably going to be us.
“But ultimately it’s disappointing we went away with no points again. I just feel we need that first win and the good feeling starts to come back. We will then maybe get more and more results. But right now we’re maybe just at the stage where we’re not quite getting there.”
At least with the pressure now off Celtic have the chance to get the monkey off their back when Feyenoord, themselves heading for the Europa League, come to town on the final match day. McGregor said: “If we go and win the last game I don’t think it will be a surprise to anyone.
“We have played well enough throughout the competition to warrant more points. The last game gives us a chance to get a win and finish with more points than we did last year. That would show a bit of improvement. There is all to play for every time you play for Celtic. There is pride there, we’re playing for the games no matter what.
“There is no doubt that we’ll be giving everything to try and win that one. Before that we have some big games. It’s a really busy period with every game massive between now and the next break. It’s full steam ahead.”
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